Recent giant detachment of a glacier in Tibet provoked by its frozen tongue

Sudden detachments of entire glacier tongues, leading to giant ice avalanches, are rare but potentially devastating events that remain poorly understood. We report on a previously unnoticed event that occurred in Tibet on November 1, 2022, with an ice volume of ~40 million cubic meters, ranking it among the largest recorded ice avalanches to date. Utilizing a broad array of satellite data types and analyses, and seismic signals, we reconstruct the exponential acceleration of the source glacier leading to its failure, the timing of the event, and the significant landscape changes caused by the avalanche. Our analyses provide important new insights into the mechanisms behind large-volume detachments of low-angle glaciers. In particular, the frozen terminus has very likely played a key role in the evolution of the glacier failure by acting as a dam to the ice mass pushing from above and its potential water content. The dense coverage by high-quality satellite data reveals for the for first time for low-angle glacier detachments details of an exponential increase in glacier speeds, up to 46 m/day in the weeks and days prior to failure.